Recently voted "Greenest US City" by Popular Science Magazine, Portland boasts world-class rose gardens, unique places like 5,100 acre Forest Park (the largest urban forest reserve in the US) and Mt. Tabor Park (built on an extinct volcano). The Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) Light Rail has the 2nd highest ridership in the US and with urban bike lanes that stretch throughout the city, it is know as one of the most bike friendly cities in the world.

All MAX stations, microbrews and rose gardens are starting positionsFareless Zone and SW Hills start 2 neutralBike Paths are killer neutrals of 1 eachThe rest are normal territories8 Continents (N, NE, NW, SW, SE, Downtown, & the MAX)MAX Stops are named for the neighborhoods with which they connect (i.e. Old Town-Pioneer)To receive a "MAX" bonus, a player must hold all stops for a particular colored line, including Fareless Zone - which decays 1 troop each round it is held.

35th DraftFixed up the sign as DiM suggested and also re-did the "Made in Oregon" sign. Changed the bike territory names to neutral color.I also fixed up some other minor aesthetic things that were bugging me, like the goofy blue MAX line in SW/Downtown.

Click image to enlarge.

34th DraftPlayed around with a few versions, but this one really grabbed me...

20th DraftTried to make this one less flat. Found a different font I like. Moved around the Legend.Re-did the Downtown street grid.Re-arranged Max stop numbersAdded the airport as a Highlight and dropped a rose garden.

Perhaps it is too late in the process, but I wanted to float the idea of the "Highlights" starting neutral and then being +1 auto-deploy when owned. Among other benefits, it makes it impossible for a player to start with the SW or NW bonuses. Thoughts on this change?

14th Draft update:Dropped auto deploy idea. Upped N bonus by 1.Changed "NW Ind." to "NW Industrial"I toned down the textured elements of map - parks, bridges, waterways in an effort to minimize the visual clash. I did leave some texture in Forest Park, because I want it to be evident that the entire territory is a park, but I made it look more like a NW territory. I also lowered the bridges to make them look level and not looming over the map.

12th Draft update:Removed Bike Lane bonus and lowered neutrals to 3 a piece - resetting if held one round. Transit Center is now -1 only if a MAX bonus is held.Raised MAX bonuses by 2 each. Lowered N bonus to 3.

Added 4 new territories (N Bike Lane, NE Bike Lane, SE Bike Lane, Forest Park Bike Lane) in place of former Bike bonuses. These territories start 6 neutral. Now that there are less of these and they are separate (and neutral) territories, I think its okay to have them attack each other. I like the idea of them being a way to move around the map. Neutral armies prevent them from being as detrimental as before and I've upped the bonus to 8 since it will be harder to capture and keep them. Is it clear enough that they are connected or does this need to be explained better? Should I add 2 more territories some where for an even 48?

I toned down some of the stronger visuals to reduce clutter. I "un-blobbed" the reservoirs to the best of my ability and flattened out various other icons.

Fifth Draft update: Forest Park is no longer required for a park bonus - now all parks are equal. Moved some bonuses around for a more even spread. Added #s to all MAX stops (except Transit Center). Altered some bonus amounts for consistency. Also added some texture to Forest Park and a map header and toned down Downtown's road grid for look and style improvement.

Fourth Draft update: Made some minor changes regarding coloration. I've also eliminated the confusing park situation in Downtown. Now only "Old Town" is a 'park territory'. I've changed Forest Park's border color to signify that the entire territory is indeed a park.

Third Draft update: Made some significant layout changes, based on feedback from oaktown and others. Downtown now exists within its real boundaries, rather than as an inset. There are now 42 territories (rather than 41) for better gameplay. The connection from the Transit Center to Downtown is much clearer, as is the contents of the NW bonus. I've also added "Shoe Town" and "OMSI" to the map and included them as a bonus package with the Rose Gardens.

Second Draft update: I've re-sized these both to the proper limitations and added more detail to the MAX stops for clarity, as well as a thin connecting line through Downtown from the Blue Line Zoo/SW Hills stop to the Rose Garden Transit Center. This one may still be confusing, so I'm open to suggestions. The Zoo/Hills stop should be able to attack the Transit Center and vice versa. There's also so very minor name and boundary changes.

You need Omsi if you have the Zoo. Docks would be better if it was renamed Swan Island. The Portland Trailblazers should be there somehow even if it's an Icon like your college things on an existing square.

Redmond Rules wrote:You need Omsi if you have the Zoo. Docks would be better if it was renamed Swan Island. The Portland Trailblazers should be there somehow even if it's an Icon like your college things on an existing square.

Will think about this more.

The Zoo is really just a space-friendly stand-in for Washington Park. I might be able to squeeze OMSI into Inner SE, but it would only be decoration. I'm trying to avoid clutter on the map unless it serves a purpose, but I'll try to work it in. Same goes for Powell's. There's just not room for it.

I had thought about the Trailblazers, but since CC is already dealing with copyright-infringement, I don't think it will fly. Additionally, if you compare it to other city-specific maps like NYC, San Francisco & Puget Sound - none of them mention sports teams, even though they have many.

Good call on Swan Island. I like that better... but fitting it in that space might be tough.

It's a little strange (game-play wise) that the entire MAX blue line is part of the red line. I realize this is somewhat accurate considering where you cut off the edge of your map. How about including the blue line stop in Goose Hollow or the Zoo? (I know technically those stops would also include the red line, but for game play it would be better if they didn't.

psilotum wrote:It's a little strange (game-play wise) that the entire MAX blue line is part of the red line. I realize this is somewhat accurate considering where you cut off the edge of your map. How about including the blue line stop in Goose Hollow or the Zoo? (I know technically those stops would also include the red line, but for game play it would be better if they didn't.

Hmmm... check again - the Blue line does go to the Zoo and even to Beaverton. The Red Line and Blue Line each have 6 stops and only 4 are shared between them - including the Rose Garden Transit Center - which is also shared with Yellow.

*I added a thin, connecting line between these two - does that help visually to connect the Zoo with the Transit Center?

Re: Lewis & Clark - in scale it would be well-below the section that talks about the MAX bonuses. If there was more room in the Terwilliger area, I would fudge the details, but that would give one territory 2 schools and an automatic bonus of +1. I purposely tried to spread school, bike and park bonuses out for fairness.

I like Portland - very close to skiing. Not the best snow in the country, but the top of Mt Hood is unique. I was there on a snowy day down below, took that chair to the top, and came up and over the clouds to some pretty nice off-piste skiing with perhaps the best view I've ever had on skis... sorry, Heavenly.

Map style: nice. Colors are friendly without being sickenly bright and cheery... kinda like Portland. I wonder if there isn't some way to make better use of space? Some territories are really large, while the downtown/Zoo/Forest Park area is a bit muddled and could stand some more space. I don't think it's bad to take some liberties with true geography if it means better play. For instance, you could cut 40 pixels off of the right side of the easternmost territories and not effect the map at all.

That would give you room to do a bit of work on the downtown map - I have trouble telling what can attack what on the inset map, which may be a color issue. And the +1 bonus is what exactly?

The MAX stations and crossings of the lines took me a while to figure out, so some clarity there wouldn't hurt... i'd say the more you can tell from the map itself and the less you have to explain in the legends the better. And are there no MAX stations downtown?

edbeard wrote:I'll come back later (maybe not today) with a proper analysis but one thing I think is important...

42 territories is much better than 41

42 is divisible by 3, 6, and 7

(cough cough and 2 )

/agree

Fitting in one more province would give your map much better gameplay on a range of settings. 2p games would start with equal neutrals to players, 3p would have no neutrals, and you would have only 2 neutrals on 4p 5p 8p.

I have no clue as to the layout of Rose City, so i can't suggest anything, but I would strongly suggest adding in just one more province

psilotum wrote:It's a little strange (game-play wise) that the entire MAX blue line is part of the red line. I realize this is somewhat accurate considering where you cut off the edge of your map. How about including the blue line stop in Goose Hollow or the Zoo? (I know technically those stops would also include the red line, but for game play it would be better if they didn't.

Hmmm... check again - the Blue line does go to the Zoo and even to Beaverton. The Red Line and Blue Line each have 6 stops and only 4 are shared between them - including the Rose Garden Transit Center - which is also shared with Yellow.

*I added a thin, connecting line between these two - does that help visually to connect the Zoo with the Transit Center?

D'oh! Ah, yes. That thin line does help. Perhaps it could be a thick line in a lighter shade? Or perhaps you should still add that Goose Hollow stop.

I think the third draft is a significant improvement. And I really like the whole concept - the map is great, gameplay should be interesting, and there are enough unique twists to make strategy lively (without an overwhelming number of options to worry about).

I would suggest a few minor clarifications, though:

1. It's not clear whether Forest Park includes a park space bonus or not. The green box around the "Forest Park" label is kind of faded and washed out, so I can't tell if it's just highlighting forest park or actually includes park land. If it does include a park, I'd separate it from the label somehow. Maybe have a wedge-shaped green space stretching northwest or something.

2. The color for Alberta Arts needs to more closely match the surrounding areas. Right now, I think players could be too easily confused into thinking it's a separate bonus alone or one territory in the surrounding set of NE Portland.

3. It's not clear how Waterfront Park figures into the park bonus option. All the other parks are enclosed within territories, so it's pretty easy to see that you need to occupy the territory to get the park bonus. But Waterfront Park borders four territories. That's visually confusing, and the notation that "Old Town, Pioneer, and S. Park share 1 park" doesn't clarify matters. Does that mean I -- as a player -- have to occupy all three territories to get credit for that one park? Or, for example, would I get a +2 bonus for occupying Old Town, Alameda, St. Johns, and Mt. Tabor?

For future reference, please could you add an updated image to the end of the thread, where you've posted an update, as well as on the first post. It makes the development much easier to follow, and will help people to tie comments to particular versions.

PB: 2661 | He's blue...If he were green he would die | No mod would be stupid enough to do that

I like how you are putting streets on the map...it looks good like that...im hoping your considering doing that for the whole map...also maybe in the parks you could put dirt trails and trees in the continent...other than that the map looks good...keeping on keeping on

MrBenn wrote:...please could you add an updated image to the end of the thread, where you've posted an update...

Done!

ReluctantCynic wrote:I think the third draft is a significant improvement. And I really like the whole concept - the map is great, gameplay should be interesting, and there are enough unique twists to make strategy lively (without an overwhelming number of options to worry about).

Thanks!

ReluctantCynic wrote:1. It's not clear whether Forest Park includes a park space bonus or not. The green box around the "Forest Park" label is kind of faded and washed out, so I can't tell if it's just highlighting forest park or actually includes park land.

I had hoped to clarify this by requiring Forest Park as part of ANY park bonus - rather than it being a territory with a park. Since Forest Park represents a 5,100 acre stretch of forest, I wanted to represent it as the full territory - hence the pattern of grass, rather than a swatch of color. Initially, I had all of Forest Park outlined with that bright green border, so perhaps that's the way to go? I'll think about this one some more. It needs to be clear from the map that Forest Park is at the center of any Park bonus.

ReluctantCynic wrote:2. The color for Alberta Arts needs to more closely match the surrounding areas. Right now, I think players could be too easily confused into thinking it's a separate bonus alone or one territory in the surrounding set of NE Portland.

Easy fix. I'll make that change with the next draft.

ReluctantCynic wrote:3. It's not clear how Waterfront Park figures into the park bonus option. All the other parks are enclosed within territories, so it's pretty easy to see that you need to occupy the territory to get the park bonus. But Waterfront Park borders four territories. That's visually confusing, and the notation that "Old Town, Pioneer, and S. Park share 1 park" doesn't clarify matters. Does that mean I -- as a player -- have to occupy all three territories to get credit for that one park? Or, for example, would I get a +2 bonus for occupying Old Town, Alameda, St. Johns, and Mt. Tabor? 4. And why doesn't Terwilliger Curves also share the Waterfront Park bonus?

This has been my biggest head-scratcher so far. The notion is that there is one park (Waterfront) that only counts as one park, but can be counted for any of those 3 territories. For example, you could receive a +2 bonus for holding Forest Park, St. Johns, Alameda & Old Town (4 separate parks), but you could not receive a bonus for holding Forest park, St. Johns, Old Town & Pioneer. (only 3 separate parks). Another example would be a player receiving a +5 bonus by holding Forest Park, St. Johns, University, Irvington, Alameda, Mt Tabor, Belmont, & Old Town EVEN IF another player holds Pioneer & South Park, because you are holding 8 separate parks.

On the third draft, I drew up a border around downtown (including that park), but no lines over the park itself. Visually, I had hoped that this would clarify the connection. Terwilliger is not a "park" territory, because there are no parks within its boundaries. Territories that qualify for a park bonus, must have a park within its borders.

I'm open to ideas on how to achieve this visually, though I worry that it may not work for the XML, either, so alternatively I may end up limiting that park to one territory - rather than the three.